Loyola hosts conference August 25 – 26: “Katrina Consequences: What Has the Government Learned One Year Later?”

The Center for Progressive Reform and Loyola's Center for Environmental Law and Land Use will host a two-day conference entitled, “Katrina Consequences: What Has the Government Learned One Year Later.” The conference, which will take place Friday and Saturday, August 25 and 26, 2006, is organized by Loyola University New Orleans Professor of Law Robert R.M. Verchick, a member of the board of the Center for Progressive Reform.

The conference will consist of a series of four panel discussions on various aspects of the issue that will from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. in Room 308 in the College of Law. The conference will reconvene at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 26, for a bus tour of flood-damaged New Orleans. Conference participants include: Troy Constance, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Monique M. Edwards, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources; Dan Farber, U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall); Sheila Foster (CPR), Fordham University School of Law; Robert L. Glicksman (CPR), University of Kansas School of Law; David J. Gottlieb (CPR) University of Kansas School of Law; Oliver A. Houck, Tulane University School of Law; John Lovett, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law; Thomas O. McGarity (CPR President), University of Texas Law School; Luz Molina, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law; Reverend Vien thé Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church and a leader of the Vietnamese community in eastern New Orleans; Erik Olson, National Resources Defense Council; Mark Schleifstein, Times-Picayune; Christopher Schroeder (CPR), Duke University School of Law; Sidney A. Shapiro (CPR), Wake Forest University School of Law; Laura Steinberg, Southern Methodist University School of Engineering; Wilma Subra, Chair of NEJAC's Katrina committee; Joe Tomain (CPR), University of Cincinnati College of Law; Bill Quigley, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law; Robert R.M. Verchick (CPR), Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Questions to be addressed during the conference include: One year after Katrina, what progress has been made toward protecting New Orleans from future hurricanes? What must be done to restore the health of GulfCoast wetlands so that they can protect New Orleans in the future? Is it inevitable that the devastation of such natural disasters disproportionately affects minorities and the poor? What systemic problems led to the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to construct adequate levees, and how can those problems be corrected? What has been done in the year since Katrina to improve emergency response, and what work remains?